Abstracts due 9/30/2017. 

2nd WIF-Sponsored Panel

Chair: Kathleen Loysen (Montclair State University)

I propose a panel dedicated to examining how women authors saw themselves and how others saw women as authors in the early modern period in France – essentially, the question of women’s prises de parole, or assuming the power of speaking and writing authoritatively. Examples can be taken from works known to be authored by women; those presented as if authored by women; or those authored by men but which represent female storytellers. Throughout this period, there are countless literary representations of female oral storytellers not only in short-story collections, but also in collections of exempla, humanist dialogues, full-length novels, printed collections of “caquets” (or women’s gossip), etc. Papers are welcome which explore the notion of authorship itself: how women saw themselves as authors, how women were presented as authors, authorities, and originators of multiple modes of discourse (both oral and written), and the role of the conversational and dialogical process within such developments. This can also be related to the wider cultural context of the ongoing Querelle des femmes, a centuries-long pan-European debate over women’s moral and intellectual equality, access to education, marriage and motherhood, and rightful spheres of influence.

Such texts demonstrate the engagement of women authors (and represented women storytellers) in a quest for moral certainty in an age of epistemological transition. The polyphonic and multi-modal nature of these texts allows the author and readers to confront various competing versions of the “truth.” We are witness to the ongoing process of women claiming an identity for themselves – and being acknowledged – as both authors and authorities.

Please, submit abstract here: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/User/SubmitAbstract/17097